A Return

If you follow either of us on Facebook, you probably know that Mark was laid off a few weeks ago and just recently took a job in Dallas.

Very little prepares one for being laid off. Being children of the dot-com, housing, and credit busts, we were as financially prepared as possible, but we were not emotionally prepared. It was terrifying. You wonder if your negotiating power as a potential hire has now diminished significantly, if anyone will even want to hire you, and even if you are worth an interviewer's time. Mark was constantly apologizing to me. I was constantly reminding him that this was not his fault. I checked our disaster plan spreadsheet frequently in an attempt to calm myself. Mark made tea when no amount of looking at numbers could reassure me that everything would be okay.

On the first night, we stayed up late working on Mark's resume. Over the next couple of weeks, we took early morning walks along the lake in order to make our problems feel small. We spent the days maneuvering the filing process for unemployment insurance, carefully crafting e-mails to Mark's business connections, and generally doing everything we could to get a recruiter on the phone. E-mail, apply, call, wait. Repeat. Get an e-mail back. Research, prep for interviews, get excited, get stressed. Repeat.

Within two weeks, Mark had an offer in hand that we couldn't refuse. We know that this is not typical. We aren't sure how, exactly, Mark got into an emerging market, or how he was let go from a job at a time when several other companies were hiring aggressively. Those are things over which we have little, if any, control.

There is, however, a catch. We were hoping to make a move back to Texas in the next year or two. The layoff accelerated those plans somewhat. While Mark will be moving back to Dallas, I have academic obligations to fulfill in Chicago. As such, the cat and I will be busy learning Greek and writing a dissertation proposal in Chicago for most of this academic year. We'll be visiting each other as frequently as possible. If friends have Baylor football tickets they won't be using, I'll fly down so we can go to a game. If I snag a table at Alinea, Mark will fly up to Chicago. It may not be the easiest or most desirable situation in the short-term, but we know how to make this kind of arrangement work with an eye to our long-term goals as a family.

We have a lot to celebrate here, including the return of Baylor football! Today is the first game in the new stadium, and I've heard that McLane Stadium looks pretty spiffy. As always, a few pictures:

We tried to make a peach tarte tatin a few weeks ago. It didn't go well. The only puff pastry we had was pre-cut into squares, and we think we overlapped too many of the pieces.

As you can see, when we flipped it out there was caramel/peach juice oozing everywhere. We may not have cooked it for long enough. Help?

This is the leg of a goat. If you haven't had goat before, it is a little gamey, should be well-marinated (it can be tough), and cooked low and slow. It is also pretty healthy. I marinated it overnight in yogurt, lime juice and zest, Moroccan spices, and honey before roasting it. Seasoned differently, it would make great tacos or a stew.

This is popcorn.

You can put it in a paper bag, fold up the bag, and cook it in the microwave for a few minutes. The results are delicious. And it's funny to see a piece of corn covered in popped kernels.

These are purple bumble bee tomatoes. They have a hint of tartness, are plenty fleshy, and have thick skins. We put them in salads and ate them plain (no salt or pepper added--they are just that flavorful). The purple color is on the inside.

This past week, we made pork tacos. The lovely mess of cilantro, onion, tomato, corn, lime, and salt was the real star of the week. We added it to our tacos, mixed it in with rice, ate it with chips, and sometimes we scooped some into a bowl and ate it with a spoon. It's good stuff, friends.